September27,1995
2
Campus Extras
Travels to Switzerland...Overcoming intimidation not a problem
by Lindsey Lamben
This summer was one of the great
est of my life.. .all because 1 overcame
my fear of going to another country
by myself. Another language, another
culture, another way of life. It all
sounded pretty intimidating, but I did
it! I spoke the language, studied the
culture, and lived for a month like the
natives. I did all this when I went to
Lausanne, Switzeriand for a month
through Eurocentres’ French pro
gram.
First they placed me in a family
there. It was a family of four who lived
in Fully, a small village on the out
skirts of Lausanne. Madame Mermod
made me feel welcome immediately
with her smile and slow French—just
what 1 needed. 1 soon met the rest of
the family and the other student that
they were keeping, Adrian from the
German-speaking part of Switzerland,
The next day we went to school.
There we took placement tests, were
placed in our correa classes (about 15
students in each), and met our teach
ers, all the while meeting the other
students in the program and speaking
in French. We were told the classes we
would be taking and given some elec
tive classes to choose from.
The morning classes were the re
quired ones. Usually they started with
a language class in which we would
listen to cassettes, do worksheets, and
watch videos. Then we had writing
class where we learned a lot of gram
mar and ways to write different docu
ments. The third required class was an
oral class in which we formulated and
participated in debates and learned
words and phrases we would need in
everyday life.
In the afternoons we took our elec
tive courses, my favorites. 1 chose Fa
miliar French, slang words and phrases;
Comic Strips, translating comic strips;
MerecMi Herald
and Reinforced Writing, doing writ
ing exercises. These classes didn’t
have requiredattendance, buti found
myself wanting to go to them every
time. They were an hour long and
only one day a week.
After school, I would usually go
with my school friends to the pool or
shopping in the little shops right
around school. We all would go out
at night, usually to a cafe or bar, to
get a drink or talk. I met the neatest
people—and in French the whole
time too!
Ilearnedthatl could talk in French
if I just tried and that it’s all right to
make mistakes. The worid didn’t end
when I messed up my sentence struc
ture or got a preposition wrong. Ev
eryone else there was in the same
boat or had been before and was
more than willing to help me or just
be patient while 1 tried to say what I
wanted to say.
As far as culture goes, it was a lot
different in some ways, but exciting and
fun to learn about. Some ways of think
ing that 1 have always assumed Europe
ans shared with the US 1 found were
actually quite different. In debates in my
oral class, 1, as the only American, often
found myself having differing opinions
with my classmates. In a class of 11 girls
and 4 guys, mostly Swiss-German stu
dents, I assumed when I heard the topic
of women’s rights that we gifts would
have it easy just from our numbers in
defending our rights. I was shocked to
find that one gift from Switzerland, a
guy from Canada, and I were the only
ones that supported women working
outside of the home!
Despite our differences, however,
we all became very close. The last day
together was quite sad as we exchanged
addresses and said things like, “If I’m
ever in your country, I ’ll look you up." It
was wonderful to see so many different
nationalities united by a language. In all
of my friend-making and lesson-learn
ing, 1 almost forgot to be intimidated!
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